A NEW scheme could see controversial Fiddler's Ferry Power Station help to save Northwich from sinking.

For the power station, on the Runcorn-Widnes boundary, could supply hundreds of tons of pulverised fuel ash which will be mixed with cement and brine and pumped into 160-year-old salt mines underneath the town.

If approved, the scheme could signal the end of the fear that the mines, which were closed in 1928 and which have been a source of potential catastrophe ever since, could collapse.

Now a multi-million pound scheme to make the salt mines safe has received a #1.2m grant from English Partnerships which will be used to carry out a detailed feasibility study into the best method of extracting the saturated brine which currently fills them.

Vale Royal Borough Council, which is responsible for the salt mines, has hired a consulting company, W S Atkins, to carry out work on the mines and to seek the best way to make them safe by filling them with the ash-cement mixture from Fiddler's Ferry.

A comprehensive system aimed at monitoring the mines during the in-filling process is to be installed. The scheme will see a new pipeline and tunnel laid with the material being pumped under the River Weaver to Northwich town centre.

Part of the mines lie beneath Marks and Spencer's and Sainsbury's stores. Both companies have carried out their own safety studies over the years, but the new plan, which could see work starting in about two years and lasting until 2006, is aimed at making the entire underground structure safe.

The mixture from Fiddler's Ferry, which has been accused over the years of contributing to global warming by producing acid rain, will be injected into the mines through a series of boreholes and the displaced brine will then be pumped away through a second pipeline to the former ICI site at Lostock.

A planning application for the work is soon to be lodged with Cheshire County Council, and English Partnerships will be asked for an extra grant for pre-contract work. The main contractors expecting to be appointed before the end of the year.

Project manager George Westlake said: 'The mines, which were formerly mined for rock salt, are filled with saturated brine which was put in there when they were closed in 1928.

'The problem has always been what to do to make sure the mines are safe. 'Unfortunately the pillars supporting the structure are of rock salt which were considered adequate enough to cope at the time, but new technology has shown that this is not the case, and the life of these pillars is unpredictable.

'If one of the pillars collapsed then it would produce a domino effect which could cause massive subsidence and seriously effect properties on the surface. They may even fall down.

'The intention is to stabilise the mines and the system of using pulverised ash from Fiddler's Ferry with cement is being seriously considered.'

Leader of the borough council Cllr Bob Mather added: 'We are now making good progress in finally resolving the problem with the mines, and a start can now be made on the engineering details on how we intend to fill the mines and deal with the brine.'